Derbyshire floral designer Jonathan Moseley is a floral expert on TV’s The Big Allotment Challenge. Here he shows how to create a floral basket using a romantic blend of colours perfect for any celebration – wedding, anniversary or even Valentine’s Day
The floral arrangement Jonathan shows us how to make was the one the nine contestants were challenged to create in the first episode of BBC2’s Big Allotment Challenge after they had grown their first flowers of the series, Zinnias. It’s a country-style informal arrangement in a basket. This lovely natural style of arranging dates back to the first half of the 20th century (up to the 1950s), before floral foam became popular. The design uses chicken wire which was widely used to create all sorts of designs for anything from a wedding to a funeral.
The tools
• A lined basket or line a basket with a sheet of polythene or a black bin bag
• Chicken wire
• Wire cutters
• Support wire and reel wire
• Florist’s scissors or secateurs and a knife
The flowers
• Astrantia
• Aster (September flower)
• Spray Rose ‘Little Silver’
• Spray Rose ‘Porcelina’
• Foliage – Bupleurum, Carex ‘Sparkler’, Fountain Grass
Jonathan teaches all aspects of floral design at his ever-popular flower school in Derbyshire. Gift vouchers for his courses are available on his website – www.jonathan-moseley.com and he can also be found on Twitter (@jpmoseley) and on Facebook.
The second series of the Big Allotment Challenge started on Friday 2nd January and ran for six weeks on Fridays, BBC2 at 9pm, with the grand final on Friday 6th February – all episodes are available to download on BBC iPlayer.
